NORMAL LIFE AND SERENDIPITY

Walking, Running, and Seeing

I am so thankful that I can walk, and run (slowly), and that I can SEE so many beautiful things along my way. Four seasons most definitely make themselves known here in South Korea, and it is clearly spring on the cusp of summer. Some people believe that May is the best month of the year. The cherry blossoms were magnificent, but after they have all blown away, there are new surprises underneath rocks and behind leaves. At least one or two times a week there is a fierce rainstorm, and the result is overflowing streams, and plant life that exhibits so many various shades of GREEN all over the parks, the paths, and the mountains.

River Walk

Near our apartment is a river that goes for miles, and along the way there are surprises, if you keep your eyes open! I see ducks every time I go there, and they always make me think of Ruby. 

Sometimes they quack loudly, other times they are asleep. They always paddle and waddle around together, like good old friends.

These climbing roses are everywhere! So many blossoms -  They climb over railings and wind their way up through other trees and bushes.

CRANE

The crane is a symbol of good luck and longevity. One day on a run, I stopped to watch this crane as it stared intently at the fish in the river below. The water was very clear, and the crane took a couple of steps, snapped its beak down under the water, and swallowed a fish in one large gulp! As I watched, he did it three times, and I pictured those three whole fish in the crane's stomach looking around and wondering where they were. 

Fish in abundance! The water is so clear, the fish are easy prey for the crane.

Then I saw lily pads:

a pool of lily pads surrounded by small yellow irises - two stone "dragon" turtles looking at each other; and high rise apartments in the background.

The flowers are white and pink with bright yellow centers. I looked underneath the leaves in hopes of finding a frog. The next day we saw frogs and tadpoles on the mountain hike.

NORMAL LIFE - shopping for buttons, gelato

The every day life of "normal" Korean missionaries includes many surprises. One normal activity is shopping. The photo below shows a button store. It is pretty hard to make a decision with so many millions of choices. I bought four buttons for about $1.00.

We took the two office elders to get gelato. The man in the orange shirt was the owner of the establishment. I was bold enough to give him a Book of Mormon, and we thought we would continue visiting him to see if he read any, and also to buy more gelato. The gelato did not warrant another visit, but we will go see him again just for fun.

NORMAL LIFE - Office Duties

The missionaries are so happy when Bryan reimburses their expenses.

My Home

Sometimes I clean the office, or at least my desk. Lately we have had a lot of mosquitos. Bryan bought three of those tennis racquet electric swatters and the Elders LOVE going around killing mosquitos. The electric swatters are one of the best inventions ever made.

 

Ordering Books of Mormon is a weekly activity.

We order hundreds of Books of Mormon in all different languages. Korea must be the Asian melting pot, because we have Books in Sri Lankan, Thai, Cambodian, Urdu, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Laotian, Bengalese, Nepalese, and even English.

Taking care of missionaries is a "normal" activity. 

Sister Buvanes Majorie Tufalo Fiso on the left (from Australia), and Sister Shin Somin (from Seoul)

These are my friends! We love the missionaries.

English classes are also fun.

English classes are sort of a community service project. This is Hyunji. Her mother drives her here for English class every Tuesday night. She also has English classes from the other missionaries who live in her ward. It takes about 30 minutes for her mother to drive to our ward building, and 30 minutes to drive back. I teach Hyunji and her cousin Kyongmin on Tuesday nights, and two 9-10 year old boys on Saturday nights. I try to make it "fun", as it may be the only fun these kids have all week.

Food is fun.

Every once in a while, I'm in charge of a "snack table". The missionaries are coming and going all day, and the amount of food consumed is mind boggling. Missionaries are always hungry. No matter what food I bring into the office, the Elders will eat it at the very moment I bring it in. Someone wrote on this white board and placed it right next to the snack table.

JUNDO

New missionaries with their new companions (trainers) going out to "jundo"*. We go with them and follow from a distance - to keep track of all of them and see how they're doing.

*(Korean word for proselyte)

Talking to older women can be fun.*

(older women = over 40)

APARTMENT INSPECTIONS

These Elders got a candy bar for passing apartment inspection. 

To inspect all the apartments takes hours and days. Sometimes we drive several hours just to get to an apartment. Bryan is pretty strict on the apartment inspection, and asks questions like, "Now do you wash all the walls and window sills and get rid of all the cobwebs? How often do you wash the windows?" This particular pair were blatantly honest and answered, "We have never washed the windows!" Then Bryan asked, "I see both the beds are made. Do you make your bed every day?" The answer was, "No I just made it this morning because I knew you were coming!"

All they need is a rice cooker and a microwave.

PIG SOUP

We took some of the missionaries out to dinner to celebrate Elder Jung Sion's departure. He was returning home the next day. The Elders love Pig Soup and could hardly wait! Why don't they call it Pork Soup? For one thing, the restaurant almost always has a picture of a pig on the outside.

This is the dining and cooking area. This woman was the only employee there, so she did the cooking, taking orders, serving, and clean up!

PIG SOUP has thick slices of pork belly with zero of the fat removed. Can you cut it off with chopsticks? No. 

You can put as many raw garlic cloves in the soup as you want - also this vegetable that looks like grass, kimchi, and very very hot red sauce.

She was so happy that we wanted to take her picture!

I'm only 5'3", so you can estimate her height. The elders are so happy!*

*Eating

Advertising Pig Soup

SERENDIPITY

Not sure what our Saturday outing should be, we ventured out to Bosudong "Book Street", which turned out to be eccentric, idiosyncratic, unconventional, unusual, strange, bizarre, peculiar, odd, outlandish, and zany! 

As you can see, books (mostly used) are piled high in no particular semblance of order. An entire street of little stores, booths, and millions of people are milling around them. The only way to find a particular book is to look around for hours!

 Can you believe a store would "display" books like this? I love it! The shops went on and on down an entire alley way, and took off down little side streets as well.
 

 Some bibliophiles who live on and just off the street have painted the outside of their houses according to their favorite literature. The Little Prince  is a favorite here in South Korea, with statues and paintings of him in several places.

Lizard and Giraffe House

More colorfully painted houses and long, steep stairways

Why not stack some more books outside in this little alleyway?

No problem if you don't have a store - just put the books you want to sell on an old bucket!

There are tons of weird statues in Busan.

Neatly stacked

 Look what I found!

SERENDIPITY

Moving on down the street, we headed toward the Busan Tower, where we planned to go to the top and look out over the whole city and ocean. However, we got sidetracked when we glanced down this street and saw a huge crowd...then heard very loud music...and an announcer.

It was a parade, an enormous parade, consisting of around 2,000 people in bright costumes celebrating the people of the Choson Dynasty, ancestors of present day Koreans.

Traditional Korean clothing

We decided that the parade was serendipitous and watched the whole thing - never made it to the tower or anything else we had planned. What a great day!

HOLIDAYS

May is the month of "Parent's Days" (first Thursday and Friday of the month), and "Children's Days", (second weekend of the month) - with no school, banks closed, post offices closed, many businesses closed. May 15 is "Teacher's Day", but May 14 is the biggest of all: Buddha's Birthday! Celebrations begin on April 30 and go for two weeks. Every Buddhist temple in the city has colorful lanterns all around it - and at night they are lit up, which is quite a spectacle! Hundreds of people go to the temples to see the lanterns, and it is very crowded with lots of traffic. We were advised to go to "Samgwangsa" Temple for the lantern festival, and we were not disappointed to say the least! The number of lanterns was in the 10,000's. Pictures follow:

OTHER SERENDIPITOUS ADVENTURES:

Bryan has been playing "Screen Golf" with a friend from our English class. It is a virtual course, you use real clubs and keep score as usual.

Brenda has been taking Korean Cooking and just made a very delicious Bulgogi Beef and Chicken/Ginseng/Chestnut Soup. There is a sewing machine in the basement at the church, so I've been sewing a little too.

Our Zone Conferences the last two weeks have taken us hiking up Guemjeong Mountain every day with all the missionaries in each Zone. Steep, long, hard, and fun!